Beyond the Cult and the Clichés

By Gilad Atzmon

I hardly agree with Norman Finkelstein on some fundamental issues. Yet, the American academic always manages to produce some very interesting and astute observations. In this one-year-old video, Finkelstein touches on some hot topics:

The Holocaust industry is counter productive.

Zionism/anti Zionism is an out of date irrelevant ideological dichotomy.

Holocaust denial laws are absurd.

The Holocaust industry has backfired suggests Finkelstein, “the countries where the holocaust is most exploited by the Holocaust industry, happen to be the countries that are most hostile towards Israel”

Finkelstein contends that Zionism (or anti Zionism) is an archaic notion that has very little to do with contemporary Israel-“It doesn’t make any sense anymore to talk about Zionism because it just becomes an ideological issue which obscures, confuses more than shed the light on. Israel is a State and it should be held to the standard of law and morality as any other State….”

On Holocaust denial Finkelstein says

"it is just a crazy law”

And about Bernard-Henri Lévy and the French Finkelstein says –

"what can you say about a country that thinks of Bernard Henry Levi as a philosopher.”

Whether one agrees with Finkelstein or not, it is pretty impossible to deny the fact that the veteran academic presents a unique voice. Finkelstein certainly moves far beyond the old leftist and Judeo-centric clichés. It is hardly surprising that some cult enthusiasts within the Palestinian solidarity movement want to see him silenced.